He and his voice were synonymous with the teams he covered for a quarter of a century.
It’s not a bad way for a man to be remembered.
Neither is inclusion in the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame.
Bob Martin was the voice of the Denver Broncos for 499 broadcasts, until cancer stopped him literally on the eve of Super Bowl XXIV.
He served as chairman of the Selection Committee for the Hall, among other honors that included a two-year stint as president of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.
From football to golf to pro basketball to just about any other sport broadcast or televised, Bob Martin was the consummate professional, the man against whom others were measured, often unkindly. In his three and a half decades in Colorado, he worked at three television and five radio stations.
It was Martin who launched talk-radio in Denver. He also became noted for anchoring election night coverage at KOA, where he spent the final and best years of his career. For 23 years, including a stretch of 21 in a row, he was the state’s No. 1 sportscaster, as voted by members of NSSA. He was sports director of KOA, the voice of the Broncos, and served first as the voice and then the color man on Nuggets broadcasts.
Various broadcasts surveys showed that during any given Sunday, more fans in Denver turned down the volume on their television set and listened to Martin’s call on radio than in any other NFL market.
A native of Illinois, he graduated from high school at the age of 15 and planned a law career. But, after two years in college, he dropped out to go into broadcasting when the law school refused to accept him because of his age.
He was an avid theater-goer and classical music devotee, and a member of the Board of Denver Symphony Orchestra. Martin once conceded he didn’t own a pair of shorts or blue jeans, but he wore cowboy boots almost by habit.
He lost his first wife, Nancy, to multiple sclerosis in 1969. He married Beverly Olds in 1970 and the two became inveterate travelers and collectors. Their favorite stop was London, which they visited annually each February. Their southeast Denver home was a gallery of oils, watercolors, prints and sculpture.
He and his voice were synonymous with the teams he covered for a quarter of a century.